Funviralpark According to newly released Jan. 6 transcripts of her House committee testimony, former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson said that White House chief of staff Mark Meadows He noted that he had burned documents in fireplaces about a dozen times in the last few weeks of his administration.
Hutchinson, who became a star witness at panel hearings, told the committee on May 17 that he saw Meadows burn documents after turning on the fireplace in his office in December 2020.
“The Presidential Records Act only requires that the originals of documents be kept. So yes,” Hutchinson said when asked if he saw Meadows use a fireplace to burn papers.
“But I don’t know if they were the first copies of something or copies of the original,” she continued. It is quite possible that there were copies or electronic copies in the incineration bag.”
Politico and the New York Times previously reported the testimony.
“I’d say once or twice a week, it’s about being able to remember a specific time you were there,” says Hutchinson. “Maybe a dozen, maybe a dozen or so, but this is the period from December to mid-January, and that’s also when we started lighting the fireplaces.”
Hutchinson suggested that Meadows had at least two opportunities after meeting with Rep. Scott Perry (Republican) on election issues.
A House committee said Perry was “directly involved” in efforts to make Jeffrey Clarke Attorney General to create a Justice Department in line with former President Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of massive election fraud. .
Mr. Hutchinson told the committee, “I know maybe three or four times. Two or four times, he took Mr. Perry to his office last minute.” He warned that he did not know if it had been destroyed by fire.
The Hill has reached out to Meadows’ attorneys for comment.
